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TheDiaryof BevitchingMiserableßarspess
Extraordinary and Pitiful Revelations Which Throw the First
Real Light on the Mysterious Murder of Crown Prince Rudolph
and the Mad, Illicit Love That Cost the Writer Her Own Life
Vienna, April 12.
HE Auerspergs asked me to their ball. Nothing
I extraordinry, yet my bosom leaped with joy
when 1 read the invitation,
Vienna, April 26.
Hearing the clank of sword and spurs on the marble
foor, my admirers turned and made room for the
Crown Prince The next thing I knew Her Grace sald,
*"May it please Your Highness” (with a wave of her
hand), “the star of tonight’s gathering, as you were
good enough to say, Baroness Mary Vetsera.”
“My fondest wish. lam a thousand times obliged,
:flncou. for the opportunity to kiss Baroness Mary's
and.”
Not'a word from me-——all my famed cleverness had
wevaporated. 1 feit like a silly schoolgirl in the pres
ence of Prince Florizel, and did not take my eyes
®rom the floor until Her Grace sald: “Pray, entertain
His Imperial Highness for a while at least, Baroness.”
Bhe bowed low before the Prince, smiled at me and
writhdrew. I looked about. All my admirers hav gone.
Had 1 been 8o rude as to let them depart without a
word or nod?
! Was I pleased? Was 1 afraid? Hard to tell. One
thing only is sure—though from two to three hundred
people were about, I felt as much alone with Rudolph
as if canoeing with him on a boundless sea, yet his
personality outweighed the vastest assemblage.
Why had the others scattered? Because of their
insignificance. They knew they couldn't hold their
own with Rudolph. These and similar thoughts
whirled through my brain, when I felt the Prince's
eyes again seeking mine with looks full of rapture and
fonging.
“I spled you the moment I entered the hall,” eaid
Rudolph, eager to profit by my emotion. “Why had
You no eyes for me?”
He tried to take my hand, but 1 would not permit it.
“‘Service!’ ‘Command!’ among friends?” he laughed
softly. “I will be honest with you,” he sald after a
pause. “My honor as a gentleman, I think you the
mo" wonderful fairy that ever stepped out of Thou
sand and One Nights. You impress me as no other
woman {mpressed me before. 1 have a favor to ask.
May 17"
“Your Highness is joking. Little Mary Vetsera
conferring favors on the Crown Prince, the idol of the
nation! lam at your service—l can't say more.”
“I sald 1 had a favor to ask,” insisted Rudolph in
the volce of a man used to command. Then he gave
me another of his Indescribable looks, adding slowly,
fmpressively, “Be my friend, Mary.”
“With all my heart,” I answered, “If a girl's sin
cerest devotion may be worth the asking.”
“It's a bargain, friend Mary,” said the Crown Prince
gally.
Then I took heart to say, “Since we are friends.
msay I not beg a favor?”
“A girl likke you never begs—she orders things,”
cried Rudolph.
“Then 1 order you to pay attention to the rest of
the company. Everybody is looking at us. If the
ladies’ eyes were daggers they would have made a
sleve of me long ago.”
“Pshaw!” Rudolph leaned back with a determined
alr. “With your permission I will devote myself ex
clusively to the Baroness Vetsera to-night.”
. “But you'll compromise me,” I ventured.
‘Phen his beautiful blue eyes opened wide In aston-
Ishment. There was a world of tenderness and good
ness in them.
“Mary,” he sald, “don’t you think a lady honored
by the attention of the Crown Prince of Austria-Hun
gary above being compromised?”
1 pleaded with him; I pleaded the cause of the
ladies and gentlemen he neglected for my sake. He
remained, talking in his animated fashion and smiling
blandly at our scandalized audience. He told me a
hundred times that I was just the friend for him, and
while my heart leaped for joy, good sense warned me
that by to-morrow his extravagant protestations would
nohbly be forgotten. Never mind, I was having my
1 of bappiness.
Then I took heart to say,
mey I not beg a favor?”
5 Vienna, May 3.
Seven days and no word from His Imperial High
@esd, who like a thief in the night disturbed the tran
quillity of my Innocent heart only to leave me stranded
on the rock of despair. -
“A note from Countess Larisch,” says Agnes. Marie
s at the Grand and wants me to take tea with her to
morrow afternoon. “Lots to tell you, Mary, dear.”
Indeed; hubby “peeved” agaln or Aunt Clssy more un
endurable than ever?
A postscript: “I promise you a surprise.” Is she
@olug to divorce George and marry an athlete?
May 4.
! am & changed girl—no, a changed woman. He
loves me; he loves me. Like a boy of eighteen whe
regard¢ his love as nature's great mystery, a holy
thing, he loves me; he swore it on his knees.
I found Countess Larisch in her usual apartments—
ante room, saloon, dining room and bedrooms for her
sclf and mald. She quizzed me a great deal about Ru.
dolph, whom she fondly calls cousin, Had I seen him
since the affair at the Auverspergs?
“Don’t be absurd, Marie; of course not.”
“But you would like to meet him?" she asked
Quickly with that Insinuating smile of hers that she
may have learned in the service of the Empress when
carrying “commands” to Her Majesty's lovers. All the
ofttold storles of Marle's questionable apprenticeship
10 “Aunt Clssy” (the Empress Klizabeth of Austria)
came back.
“A trap,” ! thought. “They arranged to turn me
over, bound hand and foot, to the Crown Prince.”
I ran toward the door and had almost reached it
when the Crown Prince stepped from Jenny's roon..
Laying a gentle hand on my arm. he sald in a voice
ever so kind and amiable. “Don’t cry, Mary; don't ery.”
1 didn't know of the tears of rage and indignation in
my eyes, but lost no time in drying them.
“Imperial Highness,” 1 blurted out, “I was Inveicled
here under false pretenses, | never thought you capa
ble of entrapping a gir! of Eood society, after meeting
her at a friend's house.”
“Come now,” said Rudolph, “I wanted to see you—
I bad to—there was no other way."
I tried to ook cold and uninterested. “You are tor
turing me,” he explained in & hoarse volce, “but will.
Ing or not, you will have to listen "
“Monselgueur——" | faltered.
“Call me Rudolph, for I love you, Mary; 1 love you
wore than words can tell.” Saying so. the Crown
The Diary of the Baroness Vetsera
Prince fell upon his knees, clasping my hands in his
and burying his head in my lap.
I tried to push him away; I begged, I besought him
to think of his dignity as a prince, as a husband.
“Highness,” 1 cried over and over again, “don’t be care
ried away by momentary {mpulse, lest both of us pay
dearly for our indiscretion.”
At last Rudolph raised his head, but remained on
his knees, and his great blue éyes sought mine with an
appeal that touched every fibre of my belng as he
stammered, “Mary, sweet Mary, no platitudes if you
please. What do I care for crown or wife since you
are the only woman in the world, the only one I can
love, the only one that combines everything to make
me happy ?”
“The Princess,” 1 gasped, pushing him from me.
“Every vestige of affection I ever had for that
woman I now tear it out of my heart!” cried Rudo’lih.
“Mary, you are my queen, my empress, my god. ay
1 dle a dishonored man if 1 don't ‘make you my wife,
and 1 swear by all that’s holy—no, not by my mother,
I swear by the Black Virgin of the Burg—that until
our marriage I will look upon you as a sister, loving
Yyou as the angels in heaven love one another. Mary,
oh, Mary, pray to God that our love remain pure and
Innocent.”
1f this .dlary had a thousand pages and if 1 were
Sapho remcarnate I couldn’t describe the feelings the
Crown Prlnoe"a ardor, his solemn pledges roused in
me. 1 was beside myself with happiuess. I think I
alternately cried and laughed with joy.
“May 1 hope?’ asked Rudolph after a pause of
ecstasy. 1 bent over him and kissed the tips of hia
curly hair. “You may,” I breathed.
He asked so little and 1 was willing to grant se
much! At that moment we heard steps. The Co: nt
ess. Rudolph rose quickly, and the gates of pan?llo
shut in our faces.
Vienna, May 1L
How beautiful is life when we love, and I the sweet
heart of the greatest, the best and the best looking
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“While she listened and watched at the little trap in the ceiling the: drunken quarrel developed into s
fightt Down went the Crown Prince, his hcad erushed by a wine bottle.”
man in the world. Among millions of women and-girls
he-chose me to love and honor, and he loves only me
me, me! How he trembles with emotion when | per
mit him to carry my hand to his bosom. His love
makes me the luckiest, the richest girl in the world.
May 16.
Dally at 4 we meet at the Countess’, quite entre nous,
for Marie allows us the run of her apartments while
she goes driving or shopping. This afternoon as Rudi
and I-were seated on the sofa close together, Rudolpn
sald:
“Mary, dear, have you ever considered what will
become of us?” Without a moment’s hesitation 1
answered, “Of course, we will love as long as breath
I 8 in us, and in heaven we will continue to love each
other.”
“Very beautiful in theory,” smiled Rudolph,
llbut__fl
“Your Highness,” 1 interrupted.
“l am no highness to you, dear,” cried the Prince.
“Call me Rudolph, lover, sweetheart, anything you will,
and ‘thou’ me, I insist.” He took my head betwee{x
his hands and pressed a long kiss on my brow, render
ing me happy beyond words.
“Say you will be mine,” demanded the Prince.
“I will be everything you will,” 1 returned, wonder-
Ing what he meant.
“Then be my little wife! Tl'll -make you Crown
Princess, Empress!” .
I could hear my heart beat, my bosom palpitated
and I was so wild with excitement 1 lost my speech.
Then I felt his lips!
“And your real wife, the Crown Princess!”
“I will divorce her and obtain the Emperor's per
mission to marry you.”
“But His Majesty is constitutionally opposed to di
vorce and mesalliances.”
“I am his only son, helr to the crown! I shall tell
him that I can’t live without you, that separated from
you I will die!”
May 26.
Affairs are not proceeding as .wlmy as anticipated.
We had counted on the Crown Princess’ easy acqui
escence—imagine the “Belgian peasant” writing off to
Pope and Kaiser, to parents, uncles, cousins and aunts,
l&slaunx that she will never, never accept divorce—
at she would rather see Rudolph dead than happy
with another, Yet Rudolph has asked her consent in
the gentlest manner possible. Far from taxing Ste
phany with her 11 manners, her jealous and nagging
disposition, Rudolph took pains to explain their differ.
ences as mere incompatibility of their respective tem
pers. “We can never sympathize or agree with each
other on any point,” he said to her. “Isn't that over.
whelming evidence of a mismatch?”
Kindly but plainly he insisted that be' wasn't dis
posed to, spend the rest of his life wrangling with an
unloved woman, and advised her to make the best of
an intolerable situation.
She won't. She says she will fight. As you like,
madam. On my part I asked Rudolph not to be harsh
with her, for at bottom I rather pity Stephany with
her red arms, her lustreless hair, her scrawny neck
and her awkward figure, or want of figure, Or does
any one suppose it her fault that she was born without
eyebrows and eyelashes, or that she affects the walk
of a trampelthier (dromedary)?
June 4.
To-morrow lam going to Meyerling. Bratfisch, the
Crown Prince's confidential coachman, will pick me up
at St. Augustine’s Church—a bad beginning for a girl of
eighteen. May Godepardon me! He struck meé with
blindness, and is responsible if I can no longer dis
tinguish between right and wrong!
June 7.
Within a mile of the castle Bratfisch reined in his
horses and I noticed Loscheck, Rudolph’s confidential
valet, approaching. He brought a note from my lover,
asking that I foot the rest of the Journey, following
Loscheck at a little distance. We entered the Chalet
through a rear door. Rudolph was at the bottom of
the stairs. “We are all alone here.,” he sald. "My
‘friends are at the chase and I gave the servants half
adayofr”
June 26.
Rudolph s back. He flew into my arms the minure
his interview with the Emperor was over. Another
terrible meeting between father and son.
“Poor old dad was g tears and wrung his hands
piteously as he begged me to spare him the disgrace,”
sald Rudolph. “I simply couldn’t resist his supplica
tion and promised to bear with Stephany a while
longer. It would have been the proper thing, of
course, to tell him of the steps already under way, but
1 was afraid to open up the wound. His sorrow night
have turned to anger, and the Emperor is terrible in
his rage.”
““Rudi,” T sald, “for your father's sake let's end it
all. Loyalty forbids to carry discord into the imperial
family, and this farthing-candle, is it worth the sun of
greatness? Wouldn't it be far better to say with Mac
beth, ‘Out, out, brief candle? " And, overcome with
emotion, I threw my arms around his neck and sobbed,
“Take back your promise; you are free. I have no
claim on you; regard me as one dead—"
“Not another word, sweetheart,” said Rudolph, clos-
Ing my protesting lips with kisses. “You and I belong
to each other, and 1 solemnly renew my promise to
make you my lawful wife, my empress. If I fail I'li
renounce the succession and flee with you to some
secluded spot to live for you and our love alone.”
“But you must follow your destiny. God appointed
you imperial heir to these realms; the people love and
honor you; they expect great things from you.”
“Mary,” sald Rudolph, “dear Mary, it we can't live
together we will dle together,”
July 5.
On the day following his Interview with the Em
peror Rudolph told me of the decisive steps he has
taken to free himself trom Stephany and make our
marriage possible. He wrote to Leo XHIL ae a true
son of the Church, asking him to annul hMs marriage
with the woman making his life a burden and a re.
preach.
e
August Ist.
No answer from the Vaticah. 1f the Holy Father
continues silent much longer, | will £0 to Rome and,
on my bended knees, I will beg and implore him teo
grant our prayer. He doosn't understand French, 1
believe; I don't speak Itallan, 8o I will address him
In Latin. 1 have the speech all worked out, 1 wil
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The Baroness
Mary Vetsera,
from a
Photograph
Taken
Just Before
Her Death at
Meyerling,
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